Huawei

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Native name
华为技术有限公司
Huáwéi jìshù yǒuxiàn gōngsī
Company typePrivate
ISINHK0000HWEI11
Industry
Founded15 September 1987; 37 years ago (1987-09-15)
FounderRen Zhengfei
Headquarters
Shenzhen
,
China
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Ren Zhengfei (CEO)
Liang Hua (chairman)
Meng Wanzhou (deputy chairwoman & CFO)
He Tingbo (Director)
Products
BrandsHuawei
RevenueIncrease CN¥704.2 billion (US$99.6 billion) (2023)[1]
Increase CN¥104.4 billion (US$14.8 billion) (2023)
Increase CN¥86.9 billion (US$12.3 billion) (2023)[2]
Total assetsIncrease CN¥1,263.6 billion (US$178.8 billion) (2023)
Total equityIncrease CN¥507.6 billion (US$71.8 billion) (2023)
Number of employees
207,272 (2023)[3]
ParentHuawei Investment & Holding[4]
SubsidiariesCaliopa
Chinasoft International
FutureWei Technologies
HexaTier
HiSilicon
iSoftStone
Websitewww.huawei.com Edit this at Wikidata
Huawei
"Huawei" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese华为
Traditional Chinese華為
Literal meaning"Splendid Achievement" or "Chinese Achievement"
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuáwéi
IPA[xwǎ.wěɪ] ⓘ
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationWàah-wàih
JyutpingWaa4-wai4
IPA[wa˩.wɐj˩]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJHôa-uî
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Simplified Chinese华为技术有限公司
Traditional Chinese華為技術有限公司
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuáwéi Jìshù Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutpingwaa4 wai4 gei6 seot6 jau5 haan6 gung1 si1

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (/ˈhwɑːweɪ/ HWAH-way, /ˈwɑːweɪ/ WAH-way; Chinese: 华为; pinyin: Huáwéiⓘ) is a Chinese multinational conglomerate technology corporation headquartered in Longgang District, Shenzhen, Guangdong province. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells digital telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, smart devices, distributed operating systems, electric vehicle autonomous driving systems, and various rooftop solar products. The corporation was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in the People's Liberation Army (PLA).[5]

Initially focused on manufacturing phone switches, Huawei has expanded to more than 170 countries to include building telecommunications network infrastructures, providing equipment, operational and consulting services, and manufacturing communications devices for the consumer market.[6] It overtook Ericsson in 2012 as the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world.[7] Huawei surpassed Apple and Samsung, in 2018 and 2020, respectively, to become the largest smartphone manufacturer worldwide.[8][9] As of 2024, Huawei's biggest area of business is in telecommunications equipment. Its largest customer is the Chinese government.[10]

Amidst its rise, Huawei has been accused of intellectual property infringement, for which it has settled with Cisco.[11] Questions regarding the extent of state influence on Huawei have revolved around its national champions role in China, subsidies and financing support from state entities,[12] and reactions of the Chinese government in light of opposition in certain countries to Huawei's participation in 5G.[13] Its software and equipment have been linked to the mass surveillance of Uyghurs and Xinjiang internment camps, drawing sanctions from the United States.[14][15][16]

The company has faced difficulties in some countries arising from concerns that its equipment may enable surveillance by the Chinese government due to perceived connections with the country's military and intelligence agencies.[12][17] Huawei has argued that critics such as the US government have not shown evidence of espionage.[18] Experts say that China's 2014 Counter-Espionage Law and 2017 National Intelligence Law can compel Huawei and other companies to cooperate with state intelligence.[19] In 2012, Australian and US intelligence agencies concluded that a hack on Australia's telecom networks was conducted by or through Huawei, although the two network operators have disputed that information.[20][21]

In January 2018, the United States alleged that its sanctions against Iran were violated by Huawei, which was subsequently restricted from doing business with American companies. The US government also requested the extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer from Canada. In June 2019, Huawei cut jobs at its Santa Clara research center, and in December Ren said it was moving to Canada.[22][23] In 2020, Huawei agreed to sell the Honor brand to a state-owned enterprise of the Shenzhen government to "ensure its survival" under US sanctions.[24] In November 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned sales or import of equipment made by Huawei out of national security concerns,[25] and other countries such as all members of the Five Eyes, Quad members India and Japan, and ten European Union states have since also banned or restricted Huawei products.[26][27][28][29][30]

  1. ^ "2023 Annual Report". Huawei. 29 March 2024. Archived from the original on 29 March 2024. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  2. ^ "Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd". Archived from the original on 29 March 2024. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Huawei Annual Report 2023". Huawei. Archived from the original on 29 March 2024. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  4. ^ Zhong, Raymond (25 April 2019). "Who Owns Huawei? The Company Tried to Explain. It Got Complicated". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Feng, Emily; Cheng, Amy (24 October 2019). "China's Tech Giant Huawei Spans Much Of The Globe Despite U.S. Efforts To Ban It". NPR. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Who's afraid of Huawei?". The Economist. 3 August 2012. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2018. Huawei has just overtaken Sweden's Ericsson to become the world's largest telecoms-equipment-maker.
  8. ^ Gibbs, Samuel (1 August 2018). "Huawei beats Apple to become second-largest smartphone maker". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 August 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  9. ^ Pham, Sherisse (30 July 2020). "Samsung slump makes Huawei the world's biggest smartphone brand for the first time, report says". CNN. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference econjune13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :19 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b Yap, Chuin-Wei (25 December 2019). "State Support Helped Fuel Huawei's Global Rise". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference auto16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Dou, Eva (14 December 2021). "Documents link Huawei to China's surveillance programs". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  15. ^ VanderKlippe, Nathan (29 November 2019). "Huawei providing surveillance tech to China's Xinjiang authorities, report finds". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  16. ^ Harwell, Drew; Dou, Eva (8 December 2020). "Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uighur minorities and alert police, report says". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 14 May 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  17. ^ Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany (24 June 2020). "Defense Department produces list of Chinese military-linked companies". Axios. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  18. ^ McCaskill, Steve (28 February 2019). "Huawei: US has no evidence for security claims". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  19. ^ "Huawei says it would never hand data to China's government. Experts say it wouldn't have a choice". CNBC. 5 March 2019. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  20. ^ "Chinese Spies Accused of Using Huawei in Secret Australia Telecom Hack". BNN Bloomberg. 16 December 2021. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  21. ^ Chang, Charis (17 December 2021). "Key details of Huawei security breach in Australia revealed". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  22. ^ "Huawei moving US research center to Canada". Associated Press. 3 December 2019. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  23. ^ McLeod, James (9 December 2019). "'Who's going to make the first move?': Canada not alone in the Huawei dilemma". Financial Post. Archived from the original on 12 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  24. ^ Lawler, Richard (17 November 2020). "Huawei sells Honor phone brand to 'ensure' its survival". Engadget. Archived from the original on 13 December 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  25. ^ Bartz, Diane; Alper, Alexandra (25 November 2022). "U.S. bans Huawei, ZTE equipment sales citing national security risk". Reuters. Archived from the original on 25 November 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  26. ^ "Japan to ban Huawei, ZTE from govt contracts -Yomiuri". Reuters. 7 December 2018. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  27. ^ Findlay, Stephanie; Kazmin, Amy (24 August 2020). "India moves to cut Huawei gear from telecoms network". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 28 April 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  28. ^ Blatchford, Andy (19 May 2022). "Canada joins Five Eyes in ban on Huawei and ZTE". Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  29. ^ Cite error: The named reference Europeancountries was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ Krolikowski, Alanna; Hall, Todd H. (2023). "Non-decision decisions in the Huawei 5G dilemma: Policy in Japan, the UK, and Germany". Japanese Journal of Political Science. 24 (2): 171–189. doi:10.1017/S146810992200038X. ISSN 1468-1099.